School Closure Letter – 20/03/2020

Dear Parents

It feels like in the last two weeks you have been bombarded with communications and information as things have changed so rapidly due to the ongoing Covid 19 outbreak. This marks the last of the letters I will be sending, for the foreseeable future, while the children are in school. Communication from this point forward will be done through parentmail, Dojo, Facebook and Twitter, while the majority of our children are working remotely from the school, as indeed will be many of the staff.

There are numerous things to update you on, clarify where we can and to provide information about, before the school closes to comply with the governmental directive.

Children’s work and ongoing communications

We have explained to all children in school this week in class, how to access their work and expectations for its completion over the upcoming school closure. If you are unsure of any of this or they can’t tell you, please contact their class teacher via Dojo to confirm anything. Teachers will be available during the normal school day to answer any questions you have or to guide children via class dojo but please allow them enough time to reply.

We cannot emphasise enough how vital it is that parents encourage students to complete the work being set. In a worst-case scenario, they could be working remote from school for a number of weeks and long term, recovering the missed learning would be difficult. Together we have to try and ensure that they remain engaged in their schooling.

You will have daily contact with a member of staff from school to be able to discuss any home learning issues you may have and to also speak to each child from school about their learning for the day. After this, any achievements please share with the teacher via dojo or if you require a further phone call this isn’t a problem.

There will continue to be a weekly newsletter sent out via parent mail so that we as a community are keeping in touch with each other. On it we will share the work children are doing at home and continue to celebrate successes.

Here is a list of ways to contact us during this period of uncertainty:

We have communicated directly with the parents who indicated that they require this service, due to their employment being named as one of the ‘key work’ areas.

Staying Safe and being Mindful of others

I do want to remind all parents why the drastic step of closing the schools has taken place. It is to protect people and to try and stop contact between different groups within our communities and to allow people to look after themselves and their families. Children will have work throughout the closure period as if they were in normal school and they should be inside, completing that work during the day. Students and parents should be mindful of the guidance around social distancing and we all have a responsibility to ensure that we follow that guidance. Hanging around with friends, being out and about in their local area and in worst cases causing any disturbance that may divert the emergency services form their vital work would be regrettable to say the least. It is all of our civic duty to make sure the very situation they are off school to help address is not made worse through their actions.

Reporting a Safeguarding Concern

As a school, acting in a remote capacity or not, we are always committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all our students. If any members of the school or local community have concerns about the welfare of a student, or if you have any safeguarding queries, please contact our School Safeguarding Team who will be in contact as soon as is feasible. Our Designated Safeguarding Leads are: Mrs Lloyd, Mrs Roberts and Miss Burns who can be reached using the emails above.

Final thoughts

The next couple of months will be odd – our school community will not be together but we will still all be connected through different methods. We will be here for the children and families if and when you need us. Supporting where we can and always planning and thinking of when the school will again be allowed to return to its normal running. We hope we will see the students at some time in the summer term.

The school for those of us who will be in, will certainly be a little more than an empty shell without that vibrancy each and every one of them brings to our community. I wish everyone the very best for those days ahead and hope that you and your families are all able to stay safe.